Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread ported to Droid Eris, HTC Evo

Less than a day after Google released the SDK for Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread, hackers have started developing custom ROMs that will let you run the new OS on existing handsets, including the Droid Eris and HTC Evo.

At this point, the ports are extremely rough around the edges. The OS is unstable on these devices and much of the hardware isn’t supported. Nobody would recommend replacing the OS on the phone you use everyday with one of these custom ROMs yet, but if you’ve got a spare device lying around and you want to be the first on your block to run Gingerbread, now you can. Better yet, if you happen to know anything about coding customs ROMs, perhaps you can lend a hand to the effort.

Ultimately, most major handset makers and wireless carriers will probably push out Android 2.3 updates for at least some of their phones. The beauty of the homebrew community is that you don’t have to wait for that to happen. I suspect we’ll start to see fully usable custom Android 2.3 firmware for many existing handsets in the coming weeks and months.